SIR – If we are serious about having long-term, relatively clean and sustainable energy supplies for the future, we should be developing thorium-based nuclear power, wave (and possibly tidal) power and efficient fuel cells for vehicles.

Thorium is four times as abundant as uranium and produces less waste. It is unsuitable for use as nuclear weapons and a Fukushima-type accident would not occur with a Thorium reactor.

Wave power may not, by itself, meet all our energy requirements but surely, as an island nation, we should be maximising its potential.

Wind turbines are inefficient and unreliable as a large-scale energy resource. Fracking will spoil the countryside, its safety is questionable and shale gas is unlikely to be the panacea its proponents claim. Solar is fine and should be developed, but it will only ever meet a fraction of our energy requirements.

William Cook

Blandford Forum, Dorset